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FCC approves net neutrality rules, reclassifies broadband as a utility


Casper

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In my opinion it's probably good. It classifies Internet bandwidth as a utility to prevent Verizon, Comcast, AT&T and others from charging Netflix or whoever they want for equal access to customer-paid bandwidth.

OK. That's the gist of it as I understood. Netflix has to pay for more bandwidth -> I pay more for Netfilx was the situation faced? As a public utility...will there be a "spot price" such as a utility like Nat gas to determine pricing?

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In my opinion it's probably good. It classifies Internet bandwidth as a utility to prevent Verizon, Comcast, AT&T and others from charging Netflix or whoever they want for equal access to customer-paid bandwidth.

 

Oh no.....surely no other reasons for doing such a thing. ;)

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I was talking to someone I know at Time Warner (I hate TW), and they told me about another impact of this, tht I hadn't thought about.  You know how you pay your phone bill and there is all of those FCC fees and taxes?  Well, you never had that on your internet service...until now.

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I was talking to someone I know at Time Warner (I hate TW), and they told me about another impact of this, tht I hadn't thought about.  You know how you pay your phone bill and there is all of those FCC fees and taxes?  Well, you never had that on your internet service...until now.

Yes, now watch your overall cost go up......and experts have predicted the overall speed of the bandwidths will go down at the same time.  Guess its a waiting game to see what actually happens, but we all know it won't be a reduced price.

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I was talking to someone I know at Time Warner (I hate TW), and they told me about another impact of this, tht I hadn't thought about.  You know how you pay your phone bill and there is all of those FCC fees and taxes?  Well, you never had that on your internet service...until now.

 

The FCC also dictates what's appropriate to say on the air...

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It's about time someone intervened. The Internet has been on a steady decline for the last 20 years. Needs something innovative to turn it around. Like utility status.

[Chuckle] the irony is that the Internet would not exist in its current form without initial government research and funding, and would not be as accessible today without telephony utility status.

Here's a conservative article that makes the most comprehensive case for net neutrality I've seen.

http://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/keeping-the-internet-competitive

There's a lot of detailed background history on the bell breakups I had completely forgotten about.

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Sure would be nice to see what is in the rules they just passed...

But it looks like we will have to wait a few weeks or months to find out what has happened.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2015/02/27/theres-already-a-conspiracy-theory-brewing-over-net-neutrality/?hpid=z14

 

Till then, it's just talk about what it "might" mean to the user.

 

Carry on, business as usual till then.

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Street I totally agree. And make no mistake the devil will be in the details just like it was with the Bell breakup.

 

An interesting point from one of the commissioners who actually has read the new rules is that taxes are coming.

http://dailycaller.com/2015/02/27/net-neutrality-arguments/

 

I would expect that in the interests of fair government and budgetary constraints we will be asked to fund the enforcement and or regulation panel and it's activities at the very least. Something like the "Universal Service Fee" on land lines. Another "Fairness" tax, to bring broadband to under-privileged consumers. (Which is what the  "Universal Service Fee" was supposed to do but never really did.) Some kind of censoring mechanism to protect the children as well. ( What a fire fight that one is going to be. - Paging Lois Lerner...)

 

On the other side of that coin perhaps a reduction of the cable TV giants bundled packages and sooner or later A la carte pay television Of course with that revenue stream cut the basic access fee will most likely go up as speeds will drop due to cost reduction. (It's all about the share holders. Faster equipment costs more, so....)

 

The "Last Mile" of connectivity is sure to be an issue and there will of course be some competition there. On the cynical side, looking at my electric bill, I see a "Generation" charge and a "Delivery" charge which totaled equal or exceed the charges before the "Last Mile" regulation fight. I would expect the same from these new rules as well.

 

Municipal and local start-up services have already been all but outlawed by lobbying from the industry. So innovation of new services is still in question. On the other hand perhaps this will make the old rules moot. We will have to wait and see.

 

Lets not forget cell phone standards in which data charges do apply as services for smartphones with data caps on most plans with "gotcha" fees for over use of their "unlimited" services. Not quite sure how that is going to work out but a subsidy for the cell phone operators to provide data services to the under served with a new "Service Fee" is the most likely scenario.

 

 

These comments are based upon standard bureaucracy growth and political trends in play today and of course not based on the rules that nobody has read yet.

 

As you said, the devil is in the details. With 300 some pages of details at this point it sounds like there might be just a few surprises in store.

Edited by Strictly Street
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  • 2 weeks later...

Surprise!

 

They have released the rules a lot earlier that anybody thought they would. Here is the link.

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2015/db0312/FCC-15-24A1.pdf

 

A fast read through it does provide a couple of expected points. Some of the definitions such as last mile and interconnect services seem a little vague on purpose. They state that they will refine this as they go along, not un-expected. Seems that they want to give themselves some room to work with as time, technology and economic factors are considered

 

56k connections are excluded as not really being "Broadband". So is VOIP, instrumentation (medical monitors) and the like. Not surprising again.

 

Cell phones seem to be an item they are being very careful with as their definitions seem to say a couple of things at the same time.

 

The "Universal Service Contributions" are mentioned but it is unclear how they are to be applied as they are claiming a partial forbearance. Leaving the door open for later it would seem.

 

Give it a read, see what you think.

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Give it a read, see what you think.

 

Couldn't I just skip it and go straight to the spewing of opinions phase?  I don't want to seem out of line with Internet cultural norms, you know.

 

 

Oh, OK, I'll read it this weekend... 

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